NASCAR COLUMN: Some Drama Real, Some Made Up

NASCAR is nothing without subplots, whether they’re manufactured or otherwise.

Some followed the haulers into Bristol Motor Speedway like exhaust fumes. Others got stirred up on the track, and others have seemingly been created over the course of this short season.

Wherever they came from, each reared its head Sunday.

The subject of tires was as unavoidable as the rain Friday and Saturday, on the heels of Tony Stewart’s inflammatory comments about the product Goodyear brought to the track last week in Atlanta. After saying Goodyear should "be embarrassed" upon finishing second on his supposed sub-par wheels, one could almost hear the reporters’ drool hit the pavement every time Stewart opened his mouth on the subject.

Before we could arrive at true tire overkill, however, in stepped Kevin Harvick to stop the fray – and provide us with a better side note.

Harvick dished out a chilled morsel of revenge in Turn 2 on Lap 499, smacking into Stewart and putting him into the wall. For those keeping score, it was a reprisal of Stewart doing the same to Harvick at Indianapolis last July. Then, Stewart went on to win at the Brickyard. Harvick settled for second on Sunday, but he wasn’t singing any sad songs – at least for Stewart.

"I just got underneath Tony," he said. "That’s just the way it goes."

After emerging from car with a 14^th-place finish, Stewart remarked that he was "sorry he got in [Harvick’s] way."

At least he couldn’t blame his tires.

Dodging from the tussle and earning a victory was Jeff Burton, the 40-year-old South Boston, Va. native, who came away with his first win at BMS – and the first of the year for Chevrolet, long the dominant manufacturer in NASCAR.

Not that anyone actually expected Chevy to get shut out this year, but that’s the way things go in NASCAR. Five hundred laps is a long time to come up with issues to talk about – even if Darrell Waltrip had lost his voice.

One sky-is-falling angle is still alive and well – the struggles of the Hendrick Motorsports operation.

Two Hendrick drivers – Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon – started on the front row, but each fought their cars all day and faded. Johnson, who at one point collided with Burton, finished 18^th. Gordon battled his suspension and finished 11^th – small victories for both drivers, but not good enough. Casey Mears also struggled with his machine, falling 82 laps back and finishing 42^nd.

Hendrick’s bright spot came in the form or resident rock star Dale Earnhardt Jr., who rose to fifth, but not before a tussle with his crew chief.

When the rest of the field hit the pits for fresh tires during a caution on Lap 491, Earnhardt wanted to come in, too, but crew chief Tony Eury Jr. talked him out of it. By the time Eury changed his mind, it was too late.

"To not get tires there at the end to try to win the race, I’m a little disappointed," Earnhardt said.

Afterward, Burton was asked about Hendrick’s struggles – specifically whether he and his teammates at Richard Childress Racing had supplanted Hendrick as the sport’s top team with its 1-2-3 finish.

Burton wasn’t buying it.

"We’ll talk about that in December," he said. "You wake the sleeping giant, [and] they’re going to be tough to beat. There’s no getting around that."

Finally, there was the role the BMS concrete played in the drama. While the drivers gave rave reviews to the new surface installed last summer, some fans weren’t as impressed with "New Bristol." Others called August’s Sharpie 500 "boring" thanks to its lack of yellow laundry.

Sunday’s race followed suit – 10 cautions for 68 laps. How the race was received is yet to be determined, but Burton insists Bristol is better for its facelift.

"If you want to come watch wrecks, you’d be happier at the old race track," he said. "If you want to watch racing, you’ll like this race track."

If nothing else, the final 20 laps of Sunday’s race had both – and some subplots.

Only five more months until both return to BMS.